The Last Train to Veilstone
by Writer under training
Summary: The last train to Veilstone City is empty and peaceful, with nothing to stop Paul from enjoying his favourite book until a mysterious girl appears and sits before him.


**A/N: **To my regular readers, I apologize since this isn't the update you are looking for. The last chapter for Road to be a Pokemon Master is still under proof reading and will take some time before I post. This one shot is something I wrote long back and didn't post for no reason. So here it is...

**The Last Train to Veilstone**

_"The train has arrived at Floaroma Town."_

The announcement reverberating throughout the station finally drew Paul's attention from the book he was deep immersed in. The Floaroma station was quiet, free from the incessant buzzing of a huge crowd, a common scene at his destination, Veilstone City.

Paul hated people, especially noisy ones like Ash Ketchum and the rest of the mob he travels with. What he liked was tranquility, and the last train to Veilstone was sufficiently providing him the same. The seat before him, despite being next to the window was unoccupied. He thanked the gods he never believed in for that. Why? Because he wasn't interested in starting a pointless conversation with a random nobody he would never meet again.

_"The train is now departing to Veilstone City."_

Heaving a sigh of relief, he opened the book again and immersed himself in _Battle Tactics and Strategies _by _Lorelei Prima_ again. Life for once didn't seem like a scene out of an amateur fanfiction writer's drabble, he thought.

Of course not.

From the corner of his eyes, he noticed a new presence settle down before him, much to his annoyance. He raised his head, attempting to take a look at their face just out of curiosity. But then—

_No eye contact._ A thought flashed his mind.

It was a rule he set for himself to avoid unwanted conversations. He immediately stopped shifting his gaze at where it was, bringing a pair of nice looking legs into his view. The person before him was a woman, he discovered from the black skirt she wore. He lowered his view a little, just to avoid looking like a closet pervert and settled for the nicely polished shoes.

Paul had a history with shoes, because he was staring at them for most of his life. He had this unusual way of judging people by their shoes. Ash for example wore brand new red sneakers when he first entered Sinnoh. But, he could almost see his toe by the time they had their first full battle, and by the time they faced again in the Sinnoh League, it was close to becoming a sandal. Worst part was, Ash kept wiggling his toes throughout the battle probably enjoying the free ventilation it provided. Even Reggie pointed that out…after seeing it on the television.

Case in point, the girl wasn't your average Dawn, Paul thought. The shoes didn't look fresh but at the same time they weren't fancy or worn out. He gained instant respect for the woman. He slowly looked up to scan the black dress with white borderlines. The girl had a flower basket on her lap, tagged Marley. So, that was her name. He shifted up, much further up, this time willing to see the girl's face just out of curiosity.

He froze. Because the said girl was looking back at him, straight in the eye, with intense black eyes that carried no emotion, even by Paul's standards. He quickly looked outside the window and began counting the distant mountain peaks passing by. The mountain ranges of Coronet always provided him with a great way of dealing embarrassments and Ash.

However, what surprised him the most was that the girl gave the same reaction, he noticed from the partial reflection he saw on the window. Maybe….what if she was just like him? Asocial.

Paul slowly shifted his head again, just as the girl did the same. Their gazes met again, and once again she was giving him the same ice cold intimidating look. What if…Paul wondered for a second…what if he looked the same to her? Should he be softening his expression for her? But why should he do that? It's not like he needs to have a conversation with her. He looked down this time, and began scanning his own shoes. A countermeasure, he usually saved for when Reggie was mad at him. But then—

Why was he looking down again? A new thought crossed Paul's mind. Doing so would give her the false idea that he shy. He was asocial, not shy. The difference? Paul wouldn't run away from people, he walks instead. He looked up again, this time determined to not look away. She might be the shy one, not him.

Once again, Paul was locking eyes with Marley as the latter apparently seemed to be thinking along the same lines. They were two emotionless souls looking each other in the eyes with sheer determination to prove that they weren't shy but asocial. However, it didn't take more than a second for Paul to realize it was a bad idea. Before he could rethink his strategy, he was too deep into a stare down contest. Five seconds passed. The two of them have reached a point that they have blatantly declared a war on each other to see who the shy one was. There was no looking back….or sideways either. Up and down was feasible, but only by a small bit.

Now that his vision was constricted onto her charcoal black eyes. Paul decided to make the most of it. The sparkly white ribbon on her head suited her hair and the rest of her dressing well, he criticized. Her lips were thin and light pink. Perhaps she doesn't wear a lipstick. The way she combed her hair looked pretty. Her eyebrows were thin, indicating that she took good care of them. Two minutes later, Paul realized that she started to look attractive to him, a side-effect caused by the excessive staring. And now that she was deemed an attractive woman by his brain, her looking back at him started making him feel uncomfortable. To make things worse, he started to realize his cheeks were becoming warm. To make it things worse-r, he could see the girl's expression soften a bit too, thanks to the blush she was hiding. And that in turn made her more attractive, causing him to blush a bit more and that led to her blushing more which led to him blushing even more. It was a circle he never wished to set his foot in. In just two minutes, he stepped into an inferno.

The Veilstone trainer began to wonder if he fell in love with her. He didn't believe in love at first sight, but certainly love at _prolonged_ sight was an intense possibility. If this were a Pokewood movie, the hero and heroine would already be mindlessly kissing each other. Speaking of which who let Brycen kiss Diantha?

The thoughts of kiss made Paul's situation more miserable. What if he suddenly jumped at her and kissed her right now in the train? What if she liked him and kissed back? What if something worse happens? A sweat dripped down Paul's forehead. The more the time passed, the more his thoughts escalated. The more uncomfortable he grew. But there was no way he would look away. Looking away at that point meant that he was a shy boy who couldn't even look at a girl straight in the eye. Now that was worse than a shy boy who avoids eye contact. Was there any end to the madness? Suddenly, he started to believe in god, just so that one would save him from the situation he was struck in. If god was really half the great entity people believed him to be, they should be answering even an atheist's prayers,he believed.

Much to his luck, the prayers were answered not a few second later.

_"The train has arrived at Veilstone City. Platform to the left."_

_'Finally!'_ A legit reason to look away. Paul jumped at the thought. He quickly grabbed his trainer bag and got up from the seat, self-suggesting that he had a grandmother who was on her death bed. He began briskly walking away, not planning to look back until he was a mile away. But—

Something stopped him midway towards the door. The otherwise emotionless trainer looked back one last time towards the girl who still had her eyes on him. Neither of them said a word to each other, but it was obvious that they fell in love, even if it was for a brief time.

"Your eyebrows," the girl spoke finally, with a bland voice that was almost like a whisper. "They are thick. I like them."

Paul paused, frowning a bit. "Thank you," he said, turning slightly, with an equally low and emotionless voice. He got down the train and began walking slowly, this time not looking back again. Because that was how Paul walked away, facing the sunset, counting the number of peaks he can see on the distant mountain ranges of Coronet, with a blush on his cheeks.

**A/N: **What do you think? Do you like it? Do you think I should work on more such one-shots? Do tell your opinion through the review.


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